Najib calls on Suu Kyi to end Rohingya ‘genocide’
month it summoned the Myanmar ambassador, while around 500 Malaysians and Rohingya marched to the embassy in the Malaysian capital carrying banners denouncing the “genocide.”
A senior minister has called on ASEAN, the 10-country Southeast Asia bloc, to review Myanmar’s membership, while a strongly worded statement from the foreign ministry Saturday accused Myanmar of engaging in “ethnic cleansing”.
Khairy Jamaluddin said the 10-cou nt r y Associat ion of Southeast Asian Nations’ prin- ciple of non-interference in member st ate s’ domest ic affairs was void in the context of such violence.
“To ASEAN, we demand that Myanmar’s membership in ASEAN be reviewed,” Khairy, the youth and sports minister, told the annual gathering of the ruling party United Malays National Organisation.
“The principle of non-interference is void when there is large scale ethnic cleansing in an ASEAN member state.”
“Let us raise our hands in prayer to Allah for the deliverance of the Rohingya people from injustice and from ruin,” Khairy added.
On Tuesday, the UN’s rights agency said the Rohingya may be victims of crimes against humanity, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in the country for a visit that will include a trip to northern Rakhine.
But analysts said yesterday the issue is a convenient smokescreen for Najib, who is fighting allegations he took part in the looting of billions of dollars of public cash through state fund 1MDB.
Both he and the fund deny any wrongdoing.
James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, told AFP t hat Najib “is there [at the rally] to boost his standing as an Islamic leader,” with a general election looming.
“Najib is looking for anything to make him look good and the Rohingya issue is simply a tool,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia politics expert with Turkey’s Ipek University.
She added that if Najib’s government really cared for the Rohingya, they would “reexamine their own treatment of the community within Malaysia.”
Malaysia might be a beacon for Rohingya fleeing Myanmar but many have said they end up in a precarious and stateless limbo and suffer a new kind of marginalisation.